Julia Marlowe as:
Barbara Frietchie,
The Frederick Girl
By Clyde Fitch
Clyde Fitch's play staring Julia Marlow as a youthful Barbara Frietchie opened in 1899. Everett Shinn's 1900 painting of Julia Marlow as Barbara Frietchie is on the hard-back script of Fitch's play.
Fitch's version of the tale is embedded in a complex love story. Confederate soldiers in Frederick are ordered not to harm Barbara as she flies her Union flag, but a former beau -- the son of the Colonel who issued the protective order -- shoots her anyway. She dies bleeding on the flag and the errant soldier is ordered executed.
Julia Marlow
1900 — Your Grateful “Barbara”
Fitch Replied:
To Julia Marlowe.
How much Barbara and I both owe to you! You crept
into her very heart (and mine!) , and like the Good Fairy at
the birth of the Princess, endowed her with her best gift,
your own Personal Charm! How grateful I am I will try to
prove by giving her to you after you yourself have made her dear to me.
Clyde Fitch.
New York, 1900.
Barbara Frietchie, The Frederick Girl, A Play in Four Acts by Clyde Fitch, 1900.
Barbara Fritchie, Julia Marlowe and Everett Shinn in The Portrait Gallery.